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June 2,1193'1.

LET-OFF Foa Loous Filed March 21, 1928 2 23 45 /Jf 5 w1 @i f s J4 4 Z4E% 30 pas as 3a 13 Patented June 2, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE VICTOR Af FOISY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, AND CARL J. LINDEGREN, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, ASSIGNORS TO CROMPTON &: KNOWLES LOOM WORKS, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS LET-OFF FOR LOOMS Application filed March 21, 1928. Serial No. 268,471.

rFhis invention relates to improvements in let-offs for looms and it is the general object of the invention to provide means for rendering inoperative a portion of the mechanism so that the'operator may more conveniently manipulate the warp beam.

In many looms the resistance offered to the forward movement of a `warp beam is supplied by a pair of friction devices, one at each end of the beam. It is not unusual to supply two weighted levers with chains, ropes or cables extending over the drums on the ends of the beam. At the time of pickout after a mispiok the weaver will ordinarily be called upon to move the beam baclwardly an amountsuficient to take-up the warp remaining in advance of the reed after the pick-out. This operation is ordinarily accomplished by hand but both levers must be raised to relieve the friction before the beam can be reversed. It is an important object of our present invention to provide one of the levers with a spring plunger which isnormally in retracted position but which may be released so as to cooperate with holding` structure to sustain one of the levers in friction releasing position, thereby permitting the weaver to raise the other lever with one hand and manipulate the beam with the other hand. After the beam has been moved back suiiciently the lever under control of the weaver may then be depressed to hold the beam in its new position, after which the weaver may take her hand from the beam and relieve the plunger sothat the lever formerly inactive may return to position to exert friction on the beam head.

It is a more specific object of our present invention to provide a plunger on the letolf lever which is designed to register with an opening formed in one of the cross girts of the loom.

In one form of let-ofi1 which has gone into general use there are mounted on the weighted lever two independently movable devices which, however, are normally locked together by means of a hold pawl. One of these devices is connected to the free end of a chain or cable which exerts friction on the adjacent end of the warp beam and the other device is held by means of a set screw xed in angular position on the weighted lever. Such a construction facilitates adjustment of the lever relatively t0 the chain so that the lever may be lowered sufliciently so that the opening in the cross girt will come within the range of movement of the plunger.,

With these and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, our invention resides in the combination and arrangement vof parts hereinafter described and set forth in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein we have shown. a convenient embodiment of our invention,

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of a loom having our invention applied thereto,

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view taken in the direction of arrow 2, Fig. 1, and showing the plunger in inactive position,

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 but with the plunger moved to operative position to sustain one of the levers in a position where the friction element associated therewith is A relieved,

bracket 14; having a rearwardly extending substantially horizontal stud 15 on which is pivoted the hub 16 of a weighted lever 17. Each lever is provided with notches 18 to receive a hooked end 19 of a weighted element 20, each element being movable along its lever to assume different distances from the corresponding stud 15. Each end of the warp beam is provided with a drum 21 around which extends a flexible friction element 22` which may be a rope, cable, chain, strap or other suitable device. Each end of the girt 12 is provided with a clip 23 which receives one end of the corresponding cable or flexible element 22 to hold said end in lixed position.

rlhe other or free end of each cable, after being wrapped around the associated drum, is held by means of a hook 24 to a disk 25 by extending through an opening 26 formed in the latter as set forth in Fig. 4. rlhere are two disks, one for each lever, and each disk has cast integral therewith a hub 27 and a ratchet 28. Each hub is free to turn on the substantially cylindrical portion 29 of the corresponding lever 17 A. second member 30 is held to the lever 17 by means of a set screw 31 and there is pivotally mounted on said member 30 a pawl 32 which normally has holding engagement with one or another oic the teeth of the ratchet 2S. Said pawl extends upwardly through an opening 33 in the member 30 and projects sulliciently tar to be readily accessible to the upper end. By means of the pawl and ratchet the disk and member 30 are held in lixed angular position when the flexible element 22 is taut. lVhen it is desired to change the vertical position of the lever 17 the pawl 32 may be moved out of the holding position after which the disk 25 may be turned in the correct direction to produce the desired movement on the part of the lever 17. rlhe pawl may then be inserted in one of the teeth of the ratchet to hold the new position ot the lever. It is to be understood that each side of the loom is provided with a lever 17 and associated devices. The particular form of connection between the chain or flexible element 22 and the lever 17 has been in common use for a number of years and forms no part of our present invention.

As previously stated it is desirable to be able to reverse the warp beam at 'time of a mispiek, but such an ope ation requires the movement of three separate devices, namely, the beam lV, and both levers 17. Such an operation is obviously inconvenient as the weaver has only two hands with which to perform the operation and our invention relates particularly to means for holding one of the levers 17 in raised position, thereby relieving the friction corresponding thereto and simplifying the beam reversing operation. Accordingly, in carrying our invention into effect, we provide one of the levers 17 with a plunger 40 having a pin 41 between which and the lever is located a compression spring 42 which tends to move said plunger toward the girt 12. The plunger extends through a portion of the lever 17 shown in F ig. 2 and the rear end thereoic is bent laterally as at 48 and extends into alignment with a )ortion of the member which may be notched as at 44 to receive said offset. The girt 12 may be provided with an opening 45 which is so located that the lever 17 may be moved to cause registry of said opening with the plunger 110.

Under normal operations the lever 17 which carries the plunger 40, that is 'the left hand lever as shown in Fig. 1, will be so disposed by the adjustment of the disk 25 and the member 30 through. the pawl and ratchet that the plunger will. be located below the opening 45. When a pickout operation requires the reversing oit the warp beam lV the weaver will move the lever to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 1 and will also rotate the plunger 40 suiliciently to free the offset end 43, thereby permitting said plunger to move toward the girt 12. By properly positioning the lever 17 tl e forward end ot' the plunger will pass into the opening` so as to sustain the lever 17. rlhis produces a slackening ot the flexible element 22 on the le lt hand side of the loom and the weaver' may then raise the other lever 17 with the right hand and pull the warp beam back with her lett hand. lVhen the beam has assumed the proper position the right hand lever 17 may be depressed to clamp it to the right hand side of' the beam thi-(nigh the adjacent i'iexible element thus freeing the weavers left hand which may then withdraw the plunger 40 to re lease the left hand lever 17 F rom the foregoing it will be seen that we have provided a very simple means for assisting the weaver in reversing the warp beam after a pickout operation by providing a plunger effective to hold one of the levers 17 in a position which will slacken the corresponding friction clement, thereby freeing one of the weavers hands for reversing the warp beam. It will further be seen that because o1' the relative adjustment between the disk 25 and the member 30 it is possible to keep the lever 17 which carries the plunger 40 in suoli a position that the latter is normally below the opening 45. lVhile we have shown an opening yet we find that when the warp beam is suHiciently small in diameter the plunger may extend over the top of the grit 12. I

Having thus described our invention it will. be apparent that changes and modilica tions may be made therein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and we do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, but what we claim is:

1. In a let-olf for a loom having a frame, a warp beam and a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, connections between the lever and the beam whereby the lever acts when in normal position to retard movement of the beam, a manually operative spring actuated device normally held in inactive position and supported by the lever and movable therewith, said deviceI tending to move toward active position to have engagement with the frame to hold said lever in abnormal position to render the connections ineii'ective to retard movement of the beam.

2. In a let-off for a loom having a frame, a warp beam and a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, connections between the lever and the beam whereby the lever acts when in normal position to retard movement of the beam, a spring plungerv slidably mounted in the lever, means to hold said plunger in inactive retracted position out of the path of the frame, said plunger being movable relatively to the lever to have engagement with' a portion of the frame to hold said lever in abnormal position to render the same ineffective to retard movement of the beam.

8. In a let-olil ior a loom having a frame and a warp beam, a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, connections between the lever and the beam whereby the lever acts when in normal position to retard movement of the beam, a plunger mounted in said lever for sliding and angular movement relatively to said lever, said plunger when in a given angular position being restrained against movement toward the frame and said plunger when in another angular position relatively to the lever being movable into holding engagement with respect to the frame of the loom to hold the lever in such a position as to render the same ineffective to retard movement of the beam.

t. In a let-off for a loom having a frame and a warp beam, a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, connections between the lever and the beam whereby the lever acts when in normal position to retard movement of the beam, a lplunger mounted in the lever for angular and sliding movement relatively to the lever, a member carried by the lever-having engagement with the connections, a retaining element rigid with the plunger and normally in engagement with the member to hold said plunger out of engagement with the frame, said plunger being movable angularly with respect to the lever to move the element away from the member, the plunger thereafter being movable into engagement with the frame to hold the lever in a position to be inelfective to retard movement of the beam, and a spring tending normally to move the plunger into engagement with the frame of the loom.

5. In a let-off for a loom having a frame and a warp beam, a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, connections between the lever and the beam whereby the lever acts when in normal position to retard movement of the beam, an element mounted in the lever and capable of assuming a plurality of rotative positions relatively to the lever, said element being attached to the connections whereby angular movement of said element is accompanied by a change in the relation of the connections with respect to the lever, and means carried by the lever to have engagement with the frame to hold said lever in position to be ineffective to retard movement of the beam.

6. In a let-oil' for a loom having a frame, a warp beam and a lever pivotally mounted with respect to the frame, a member rotatable on the lever and having operative connection with the beam, said member being normally fixed relatively to the lever and having a depression therein, a sliding and rotative element mounted in the lever, and a resilient device operatively connected to the element and tending to move the element toward the frame and tending also to hold a portion Vof the movable element in the depression, whereby the movable element is normally held in inactive position, said lever being held by the movable element in a position to be ineffective to retard movement of the beam.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto aiiixed our signatures.

VICTOR A. FOISY. CARL J. LINDEGREN. 

